Imagine the scenario. You’re a multibillion-dollar oil company. (As thought experiments go this is hardly Schrödinger’s cat, but indulge us for a second.)

You’ve just posted a whopping 34% fall in profit and an equally worrying 2.3% fall in oil and gas production.

Now, the market’s about to open. What do you expect? Brickbats? Ire? Opprobrium?

Try a 5% rise in the value of your stock, the early-morning equivalent of champagne and roses. How does that work?

Well, if you’re BP—which, as The Wall Street Journal’s Justin Scheck reports, did all of the above and more—then you’re a vertically integrated example of the conundrum facing the modern oil major and its long-suffering investors.

Caught between the rock of falling production and the hard place of rising costs, the plight of large oil companies has been likened to a behemoth stuck on a treadmill—forever running just to stand still.

So what was the catalyst for Tuesday’s thumbs up from London’s investor community? BP’s plan to buy back more of its shares, raise its dividend and sell more assets.

As far as long-term strategies go, it’s not the kind of trick you can pull off ad infinitum.

But for now—and BP’s beleaguered investors—it will do nicely.

LIBYA WOES HAVE WIDER IMPACTS

Libya’s troubles appear to go from bad to worse. Already facing the loss of most of its oil exports—now less than 10% of capacity—after widespread protests in the restive central and eastern regions, the OPEC producer now has to contend with protests in the relatively trouble-free west.

According to a report by the Journal’s Benoit Faucon, disgruntled local tribesman have forced the largest field in western Libya, El-Sharara, to halt operations.

While the market hasn’t paid huge amounts of attention to the ructions—being well supplied from elsewhere—the new wave of unrest gripping Libya and Iraq is beginning to eat into Saudi Arabia’s spare capacity, says Barclays analyst Helima Croft.

MARKETS

Oil futures fell Tuesday, with December Brent on London’s ICE futures exchange down 44 cents, or 0.40%, at $109.17 a barrel. The December contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 36 cents, or 0.36%, at $98.32 a barrel. You can read the Journal’s latest market report here.